It is often said that “old age precedes old legs”. This refers to the fact that the joints of the elderly are susceptible to degenerative osteoarthritis, which can seriously affect joint function and quality of life if not properly protected. The following is a brief description of osteoarthritis prevention and treatment. Incidence of osteoarthritis: Osteoarthritis has a high incidence among middle-aged and elderly people, second only to heart disease, and the number is rising with age. Statistics show that 60 percent of people over the age of 65 have the disease, and 80 percent of people over the age of 75 have the disease. There are about 65 million people suffering from this disease nationwide, making it a large group. In particular, the disability rate of this disease can be as high as 53%, which has a serious impact on the health and quality of life of the elderly. Osteoarthritis mechanism: human joints are like the bearings of a machine, the normal joint surface is smooth, with the growth of years of use (i.e. age), the joint surface gradually loses its smoothness due to long-term wear and tear. In old age, after decades of wear and tear on the bone joints, the articular cartilage becomes rough, followed by fissures, aging or flaking, and later by the proliferation of perichondral tissue and the formation of bone redundancy, which eventually leads to subchondral bone sclerosis, joint hypertrophy, deformity, and the occurrence of movement disorders. This is the whole process of the occurrence, development and formation of osteoarthritis. It is easy to see that exercise patterns and loads are closely related to the prevalence of osteoarthritis. The probability of osteoarthritis is higher in those who exercise with a significantly increased load on the joints, and which joints are more prone to osteoarthritis if they are frequently loaded and active. Clinical practice has shown that the occupations susceptible to this disease are athletes, dancers, porters, coal miners, etc. Obese people are also susceptible to this disease; the parts susceptible to osteoarthritis are knees, hips, spine, hands, etc. Diagnosis of osteoarthritis: It is mainly based on the clinical manifestations of the patient, which are: joint pain, restricted movement and joint deformity. Joint pain often occurs in the morning and is relieved by activity, but the pain increases with excessive activity; the affected joints are not mobile, and the joints become stiff after a long period of time in a certain position; climate change can cause symptoms to occur and worsen; there may be mild swelling of the affected joints; in severe cases, there may be muscle atrophy and joint deformity. Treatment of osteoarthritis: There is no specific drug to eradicate this disease, the treatment is generally only the use of drugs to relieve and temporarily eliminate pain, so the right approach should be to eliminate the root cause of the formation of the disease. The key to the problem is to start with lifestyle changes and to properly address the issues of eating, resting, and exercising. For the treatment of osteoarthritis, non-hormonal painkillers such as aspirin, anti-inflammatory pain, fenbendazole and ibuprofen are generally used clinically to relieve pain, while acetaminophen and COX-2 inhibitors also have the effect of reducing or eliminating the pain. Local treatment can be done by physical therapy, tui-na and plasters. Some articular cartilage-protective drugs, such as glucosamine hydrochloride or glucosamine sulfate, can prevent the onset and development of osteoarthritis or delay the pathological process of osteoarthritis. For those who are still unable to use the above drugs and have persistent pain, intra-articular injection of glucocorticoids is feasible, but this should not be used arbitrarily, repeatedly or for a long time, otherwise it will aggravate the damage to joint cartilage and the symptoms of osteoarthritis. In addition, intra-articular injections of viscoelastic supplements, such as sodium hyaluronate, may be used to relieve or improve symptoms. For those with severe osteoarthritis symptoms, treatment can be provided by arthroscopic surgery (e.g., moderately symptomatic osteoarthritis), osteotomy (e.g., knee osteoarthritis with internal and external knee deformity without severe lesions in the corresponding contralateral joint space), and joint replacement surgery (e.g., moderate to severe pain, impaired motion, and X-ray confirmation of significant joint damage). There is a misconception about surgery for advanced severe osteoarthritis, i.e., we Chinese are generally reluctant to treat the disease with surgical treatment, fearing that surgery is not safe, that there will be sequelae, etc., and believe that medication and injections are safe. In fact, this perception is incorrect. For osteoarthritis, the damage to the digestive tract from taking painkillers is enormous and can easily cause other conditions; for patients with severe osteoarthritis, surgery is more thorough than taking medication and injections and does not have the side effects of taking medication. Currently, the surgical treatment of osteoarthritis in our country is quite mature, and many new materials have been widely used, so the success rate of surgery is quite high. If there are no special circumstances, it is not a problem to keep it intact for one or two decades after surgery. Patients in developed countries are more open-minded about this condition. When they have osteoarthritis and conservative treatment does not work and they need surgery, they often take the initiative to request surgery. The United States, with a population of about 200 million, has no less than 200,000 knee surgeries each year. In contrast, our country has a population of 1.3 billion and fewer than 10,000 people have knee surgery each year, mostly as a last resort. Prevention of Osteoarthritis: The most important aspect of osteoarthritis prevention is to reduce the wear and tear of joint cartilage and to reduce weight bearing. Since excessive exercise and overload cause wear and tear on the joints, we should avoid excessive exercise and choose the right type of exercise. Some people who have bone spurs in their joints think that they can “wear them out” by exercising a lot, so they try their best to move around, such as climbing up. This “taken-for-granted” approach will not only not “grind” away the spur, but will also aggravate the condition. Inappropriate heavy exercise is definitely not appropriate for this disease. However, the elderly can not be inactive, and inactivity will make the osteoarthritis function atrophy, resulting in more serious consequences, just like machines and cars, long-term use, the same will rust and scrap. You should do some gentle exercises that are good for bone and joint, such as walking, leg lifting, swimming and so on. Climbing mountains, stairs, continuous squatting and standing up, kneeling or squatting for a long time, running with weights, and especially taijiquan may be beneficial to other organs of the body, but they are very harmful to the knee joint and should be avoided as much as possible. In addition, you should also pay attention to the following aspects: . People who are overweight should pay attention to weight loss to reduce the burden of the body on the bone and joint. . Try not to wear high heels or hard-soled shoes to reduce the pressure on the joints. . Wear shock-absorbing shoes and, if necessary, knee pads. Take vitamins A, C and E and vitamin D supplements to prevent osteoarthritis. . The room you live in should be sunny, ventilated, with low humidity and appropriate temperature to avoid cold joints. . The height of the seat should be appropriate, in order to stand up and sit down without weight. Beds should be hardwood beds instead of soft beds. . Obese people should eat less purine containing food to avoid contributing to gouty arthritis. . Maintain a positive and optimistic attitude, do not let osteoarthritis form a psychological burden on yourself, so as not to aggravate the disease. . If the degeneration of the knee joint is severe, you can use crutches to reduce the load on the damaged joint. . If necessary, do suitable health exercises to slow down the degeneration of the knee joint and prevent recurrence. For example: (simple rehabilitation exercises) a. Lie on your back, put a pillow under your knee and raise your calf (tighten your thigh muscles) (10 to 20 times each) b. Sit in a chair and also straighten and bend your knee.